(somebody wrote, but this guy deleted the attributes for while top-posting,)

Do you have an actual study to back that up? The problem is, it's a
digital storage medium. They're either zeros or ones.

On Fri, 11 Mar 2005 02:49:45 GMT, C.A. Decker wrote:
Actually this is a common misconception.

What, that a digital disk is digital?

The actual reading of the disc
is a totally analogue process. The reflected optical signal from the
pits on the CD is not a strict "one" or "zero". The signal varies within
a lower range which we call a "zero", and a higher range which we call a
"one". There is a "guard" band between these two signal levels.

Yes. And if the bit is above the upper limit, it's a one. If it's below
the lower limit, it's a zero. If it's in the middle, it's an _error_,
and the error correction bits tell your reader how to correct it.

It is
only the digital circuitry that comes after the disc reading process that
causes "binning" of the two signals into either a "one" or a "zero".

Right, so far.

It
may not happen very often, but it is possible to introduce errors at the
analogue reading stage.

Of course it is. Scratches, bad pits, and so on. That's why the correction
bits are there.

How this may or may not affect the sound I'll
leave for others to debate.

If you're taking signal and turning it into something else, it's called
_noise_.

However, recall that many moons ago jitter
was ridiculed and totally dismissed in the press as being an implausable
cause for any affect on the sound. If I recall, it was one of these so-
called nut case audiophiles that originally discovered and measured this
effect. I do believe that low jitter circuitry is now pretty much
standard in any decent quality digital equipment. Cheers.

A lot of really stupid ideas have been ridiculed as well. I think this is
one thing that has always turned me off from the "high end audiophile"
people - they can't quantify their theories, and try to justify them as
good because some other theory turned out to be good when it was initially
ridiculed.

For every person thought to be a fool who turns out to be a genius, there
are 999 who really, really were just fools.